


It's Sad To Say I've Lost It All

by Dikhotomia



Series: Whumptober 2k19: FE3H Edition [23]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Another (kind of) CF AU, Day 23 Bleeding Out, Gen, This is also self indulgent af, so I guess enjoy more pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2021-01-02 02:08:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21153830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dikhotomia/pseuds/Dikhotomia
Summary: "She was almost happy when she passed out. She didn't have to hear how the rest of the battle went, believing that Rhea -- Seiros? -- would be victorious no matter what. That the older woman would come back for her and save her just like she had all those years ago. The first time she almost bled out, a memory she'd only recently been reminded of."ORIt never goes quite the way you want it to.





	It's Sad To Say I've Lost It All

**Author's Note:**

> Look at me actually managing to post a prompt on the day it's supposed to be posted. I feel accomplished, let's see if I can keep it up till the end of the month.

Rhea finds her exactly how she'd been left, laying on her back in a pool of her own blood that had steadily grown larger as the battle raged on without her. She hasn't moved since the Professor's sword had carved her open, the look of grief on the other woman's face almost as much a slap in the face as the way Shamir looked at her as she passed by. As the way all of the strike force looked at her.

Sorrow, silently apologetic.

She was almost happy when she passed out. She didn't have to hear how the rest of the battle went, believing that Rhea -- _Seiros?_ \-- would be victorious no matter what. That the older woman would come back for her and save her just like she had all those years ago. The first time she almost bled out, a memory she'd only recently been reminded of.

The memory she returns to when a warm hand touches her face and she opens her eyes to see Rhea kneeling over her, just as covered in blood, just as ragged and wounded. One of her eyes is missing, an ugly slash ripping through her chest and down to one side. White scales still cling in patches on her skin, eyes still blazing green and inhuman. Her magic was trying to save her. To keep her alive even though Catherine could see the defeat, the exhaustion. 

"I'm so sorry," Rhea whispers, leaning down and touching their foreheads together. "I should not have dragged you into this."

Catherine reaches up and curls her and around the back of the other woman's head, letting out a laugh she immediately regrets. "You didn't drag me into anything," she rasps, swallowing around the copper taste on her tongue and in her throat. "I chose to be here. I wanted to be here. Like I always said, my place is by your side." She coughs, grimacing as pain lances through her chest, as blood fills her mouth and forces her to turn away from Rhea to spit it out. Her hand slips away and she feels Rhea draw away from her, hears as the woman collapses, her own body unable to hold her up.

"I mean this sure wasn't...what I had in mind," she says, turning her head as much as she can. Rhea lays behind her, curled on her side, staring blankly back at her. The glow is gone, the paleness of her eyes almost grayish now. She doesn't move, doesn't blink, doesn't breathe.

"Remember that time you saved me?" Catherine talks even as she herself starts to fade, darkness eating at the corners of her vision again, the cold bone deep and numbing. "Did I ever thank you for it? I can't...remember." 

She knows Rhea won't answer, can't even hear her, but she doesn't really care either.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is....thank you...for everything."

Her eyes close.

The world falls away.


End file.
